The 20 Greatest Manservice Anime Series

With glistening, half-naked muscular guys appearing in nearly every scene, Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club is arguably the epitome of manservice. Not only does this swimming anime go out of its way to highlight the attractiveness of its mostly male cast, it also includes another important element of manservice: serious hints at a romantic and sexual relationship between the characters.

Whether you ship it or not, Free! makes it impossible not to think there's something going on between Makoto and Haru.

Is Yuri!!! on ICE manservice? Technically, Yuri and Victor's relationship offers a genuine romantic relationship involving a serious marriage proposal, making this particular moment closer to queer representation than it is to yaoi, which tends to titillate.

But when it comes to the rest of the series, the manservice is unquestionable. Whether it's those lingering shots of Victor's butt, or Yuri's come-hither look toward his audience during a skating routine, this show knows exactly what its viewers want to see. 

Though he's a demon driven to collect a young boy's soul, Sebastian Michaelis is also one hell of a manservice icon. Sebastian only needs to walk into a room to get viewers drooling, but his provocative moments with other demon butlers really send the audience over the top. There are similar moments involving Ciel Phantomhive, the 12-year-old boy who sold his soul to Sebastian in exchange for lifelong devotion.

Manservice involving a child is sketchy at best. Consequently, while Black Butler is a well-plotted and skillfully animated series with several seriously sexy scenes involving its adult protagonist, it's important to understand the show sometimes veers off into creepy territory.

Ouran High School Host Club provides a somewhat meta example of manservice. The titular host club appears modeled after real host clubs, which are essentially establishments where men receive pay to flirt with women.

While real-world host clubs can involve alcohol, as well as occasional sex if the client pays enough, the host club in this anime is a PG-13 version of the real thing. Tamaki Suoh and his fellow hosts use their charm, beauty, and flirtatiousness to make both their clients and the show's fans swoon.

Yui Kusanagi is just a regular human girl, but she still has an objective in the realm of the gods. For story purposes, Yui helps these beautiful deities remember their responsibilities to humanity. She allows viewers to project themselves onto her while she takes her place at the center of a reverse harem, which features personifications of Greek gods, Egyptian gods, Norse gods, and more.

Each representation is as attractive as one might expect given their origin, and the show takes every opportunity to show this off. There's even a beach episode where everyone is half-naked, their physiques in full view.

Kiss Him, Not Me gently makes fun of manservice fans while still giving them exactly what they crave. Kae Serinuma is a fujoshi who just wants to watch cute boys fall in love - she isn't interested in participating in romance herself.

But when she accidentally loses a ton of weight, a group of attractive boys are wildly attracted to her, relentlessly competing for her affections. Since everything appears through Kae's eyes, ordinary interactions between her suitors seem romantic, and there's more than enough beautiful boys striking alluring poses to satiate any thirsty fan.